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Settling In

Settling In

Oysters and many other bottom-dwelling organisms begin life as free-swimming larvae, drifting in the ocean currents. How and when they decide to settle on the seafloor and grow to adulthood…

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Bear of a Ship

Bear of a Ship

The research vessel Bear was built in Bristol, R.I., in1941 to serve during World War II as a troop carrier in the South Pacific. In 1951, WHOI chartered Bear and purchased…

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Measuring Methane

Measuring Methane

WHOI scientist Anna Michel is developing new ways to measure gases in the air over long distances using a technique called laser spectroscopy. Some of the light from a laser is absorbed by…

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Tag On!

Tag On!

Mike Dodge, husband of marine biologist Kara Dodge, prepares to attach a suction cup-mounted tag to the back of a leatherback sea turtle in waters near Cape Cod recently. Both…

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Magnetic Attraction

Magnetic Attraction

WHOI geologist Maurice Tivey has an unusual speciality: He studies the magnetic properties of rocks. When volcanic magma solidifies, magnetic crystals form in rocks and become oriented in the direction…

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Arriving in Style

Arriving in Style

Members of the Wampanoag tribal nation (foreground) welcome the crew from the Hōkūle’a at WHOI this summer. Hokule’a is a traditional Polynesian sailing canoe currently on a round-the-world tour to…

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Alvin‘s Army

Alvin's Army

Alvin, the nation’s deepest-diving human-occupied research sub, was built in 1964 and has been constantly upgraded ever since. It is part of the NSF-sponsored National Deep Submergence Facility at WHOI, which…

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Waiting Their Turn

Waiting Their Turn

Large orange floats line the edge of the WHOI dock. In a couple of weeks, they’ll board the R/V Neil Armstrong bound for the Coastal Pioneer Array, an ocean observatory about…

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The Mysterious Life of Eels

The Mysterious Life of Eels

The life cycle of eels still holds many mysteries for scientists. Eels are believed to mate and lay their eggs in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean—but no…

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Every Ship has a Story

Every Ship has a Story

This 75 foot-long ship—one of the shortest in WHOI’s history—led quite a diverse life. Balanus was constructed in the early 1940s in Winthrop, Mass., less than 100 miles from her…

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The Ocean in Her Life

The Ocean in Her Life

Ella Ruth Goodman, age 4, went on her first whale watch this summer in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and discovered another world beneath the waves. Her mother, Jessica,…

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Up and Comers

Up and Comers

For 58 years, WHOI has brought some of the best and brightest undergraduate students from around the world to Woods Hole for a summer-long immersion into ocean science. Students selected…

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Small Boat, Big Heart

Small Boat, Big Heart

Coastal waters account for only a fraction of the ocean’s total, but processes that play out close to shore have an oversized impact on us here on land. To study…

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Keep on Truckin’

Keep on Truckin'

The human-occupied vehicle Alvin hitches a ride on a flatbed before being hoisted onto the WHOI-operated research vessel Atlantis in advance of an expedition this summer to explore the depths…

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Hurricane Hunters

Hurricane Hunters

Sometimes studying the ocean requires that scientists take to the air, as physical oceanographer Steve Jayne did with the Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. Jayne flew with aircraft commander Lt.…

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Operating Without a Tether

Operating Without a Tether

WHOI research engineer Casey Machado works on Nereid Hybrid Tether (HT) during dock trials recently. The “hybrid” in Nereid HT’s name means the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) can either be…

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(Fluid) Dynamic Lecturers

(Fluid) Dynamic Lecturers

The principal lecturers of the 2016 Geophysical Fluid Dynamics program at WHOI were Peko Hosoi, professor of mechanical engineering and mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michael Shelley, co-director…

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What I Did On My Summer Vacation

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Falmouth Morse Pond School students Lauryn McGann, Natalie Packard, and Alexia Morton (left to right) spent part of their summer building a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The rising sixth graders…

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Ring Around the CTD

Ring Around the CTD

Every summer, the WHOI Summer Student Fellowship (SSF) program and the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP) bring undergraduates to WHOI to learn more about ocean science. The students attend lectures by…

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Science After Hours

Science After Hours

Each year, virtually all the marsh grass in coastal wetlands dies, but very little plant material remains buried in sediments. Understanding where this organic matter goes is an important part…

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Diving Into Work

Diving Into Work

Oceanographers use tools ranging from simple nets to complex autonomous robots, but there are times when only a human presence in the ocean will suffice. WHOI diving safety officer Ed…

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Fruits of their Labor

Fruits of their Labor

This Labor Day, a very satisfied team on R/V Neil Armstrong is headed to port after a successfully servicing moorings on the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) array…

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Able-Bodied at Sea

Able-Bodied at Sea

R/V Neil Armstrong able-bodied seaman (AB) Pete Boucher secures one of the lines that keep the ship safely attached to the dock when in port. Both the ABs and the…

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